1. Field
The described technology relates generally to a liquid crystal display (LCD). More particularly, the described technology relates generally to a transflective liquid crystal display (LCD).
2. Description of Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is slimmer, lighter, and consumes less power than a comparable cathode ray tube (CRT). As a result, the liquid crystal display (LCD) has been prevalently used for midsize and large products such as a monitor and a TV, and small-sized products such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (Pads), and portable multimedia players (PMPs).
The LCD is a display device that includes a liquid crystal display panel displaying image data using an optical characteristic of liquid crystal. The liquid crystal display panel includes an array panel formed with a thin film transistor (TFT), a color filter panel formed with a color filter (CF), and a liquid crystal interposed therebetween, and the image is displayed by driving and controlling the liquid crystal by an electric field difference between the array panel and the color filter panel.
The liquid crystal display (LCD) may be divided into a transmissive type using light incident from its backlight unit disposed at one side of its liquid crystal display panel, and a reflective type using external light such as solar light.
The reflective type liquid crystal display (LCD) uses only external light incident through the LCD such that power consumption thereof is relatively small compared to the transmissive type liquid crystal display (LCD) using only internal light incident from its backlight unit. Also, when the transmissive type liquid crystal display (LCD) is used outdoors, visibility may be remarkably deteriorated due to external (outer) light such as the solar light. However, in the case of a reflective liquid crystal display (LCD), the outer light is used as the light source such that the reflective liquid crystal display (LCD) may not be used when the outer light is not present.
Therefore, a transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) including both the transmissive type and the reflective type has been proposed. The transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a transmissive part and a reflective part inside the liquid crystal display panel such that the transmissive mode and the reflective mode may be selectively realized. Generally, the transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a step inside the liquid crystal display panel, and thereby a difference of an interval, that is, a cell gap between two substrates of the liquid crystal display panel is generated, and the transmissive mode and the reflective mode are realized by the difference of the cell gap.
However, the transflective liquid crystal display (LCD) generates light leakage due to the step such that light loss is increased, and when a light blocking layer at the step is formed to block the light leakage, the aperture ratio is decreased. Also, the cell gap is not uniform such that an internal structure is complicated, and resultantly the manufacturing process thereof is complicated.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the described technology and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.